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Irish
Notes 9th Sept 04.
Following
his 3rd place overall on last weekend’s Ulster
Rally, Austin MacHale is now faced with the decision of
whether to compete on the Cork ‘20’ Rally, final round of
the Pirelli tarmac series, or the
Yorkshire
Trackrod Rally, penultimate round of the Pirelli British Rally
Championship. The events fall on the same weekend, 2nd
/ 3rd October.
MacHale
is a great lover of the Cork event, which he has won twice,
but is in such a strong position in the British series points
that he will almost certainly head to Yorkshire, and may well
have his Focus WRC converted to RHD for the event.
The Cork
‘20’, organised by the newly revamped Munster Car Club and
backed by Kieran Murphy’s Construction Company, will carry
bonus Pirelli Tarmac Championship points and, based at Cork
City’s Rochestown Park Hotel, will feature 14 classic stages
in the Macroom and North Cork regions.
Kevin
Lynch and Kieran Shaw in their respective Impreza WRC’s, 1st
and 2nd in the NI Stage Championship, are the top 2
seeds on this Saturday’s Fisher Engineering backed Lakelands
Stages Rally.
Top GpN
entries on the 11 forest stage Lakelands, which is based in
Enniskillen’s Ashberry Hotel and starts at 09.30, are WRC
star Niall McShea, who won the event outright last year, and
local man Raymond Johnston, in his new model Lancer. The main
service area for the event is in Garrison.
Pat
Donegan and Enda Keenan are amongst the top entries listed for
this Sunday’s Oldcastle Hellfire Rally, the format of the
rally being a familiarisation run and then three timed runs
over an interesting 9.5 mile asphalt stage outside Mullingar.
The
Hellfire will be the debut event for the Irish 205 Challenge,
instigated by former Peugeot works driver Rory Galligan, along
with Claire Walsh. Mechanical technical restrictions will be
similar to the UK 205 Challenge. This first Irish series will
consist of 6 events. 25 Peugeot 205 crews have entered the
Hellfire, and so far 15 have registered, including Adrian
McElhinney, Andrew Brown and former rallycross champion Fergal
Driver.
Ballymena’s
George Robinson has obtained a new GpN Mitsubishi Lancer,
prepared by Dominic McNeill. The former NI and Irish National
Champion is planning to run the car, as well as his immaculate
Escort WRC, on selected events.
The 18th
September Laferge Cement Ireland Stages, organised by
Cookstown Motor Club, will feature 12 stages for the
remarkably good value entry fee of £150. Just some top
entries received include Kieran Graffin in his Escort WRC,
Ulster National winner Camillus Bradley (Escort) and Dan
McCartan’s son Justin in his Celica GT4.
Brian
Patterson.
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